Originally formed in 1983, the ERC is a national non-profit civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C. With members located in 42 states and the District of Columbia, the ERC works nationally to promote equal opportunity in housing, employment, disability rights, immigrant rights, and access to public accommodations and government services for all protected classes under federal, state, and local laws.

On April 14, in Oakland California, Chairman Genachowski announced that the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") is co-sponsoring a nationwide contest to develop software applications ("apps") that get personalized, actionable information to people least likely to take advantage of the digital revolution. We wanted to reach out to you to let you know of this new FCC initiative. Attached is a news release and Chairman Genachowski's prepared remarks. We hope you will be able to share this with your network to get out the word about this contest.

KNIGHT FOUNDATION AND FCC ANNOUNCE NEW APPS CONTEST TO BRING LOCAL INFORMATION TO UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

Washington, D.C. - In a new, nationwide contest announced today, communities and software developers will compete to develop software applications ("apps") that get personalized, actionable information to people least likely to take advantage of the digital revolution.

The Apps for Communities Challenge is part of the FCC and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's efforts to foster digital inclusion and promote broadband adoption. Details are posted at Appsforcommunities.challenge.gov.

Surrounded by Mayor Jean Quan of Oakland, Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco and Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the contest. "This challenge uses the power of broadband and the ingenuity of creative thinkers across America to help advance our country's broadband agenda," said Chairman Genachowski. "I expect we'll see great new apps that use public data to help people all over the country seize the broadband revolution and improve their access to jobs, health care and educational opportunities."

"In the digital age, access to the Internet is fundamental to democracy. To the extent that a large portion of Americans have no broadband access, they can't fully participate in this society and they also can't become part of the demand that will drive further innovation. We are proud to partner with the FCC in an effort to increase access to the Internet for all Americans and to entice them to actively use that access," said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. He added, "Contests can promote innovation in all sorts of unexpected ways. This particular challenge is designed to encourage and reward people for solving local problems through technology. 'Tech-for-engagement' is in its infancy but holds huge promise."

The Apps for Communities Challenge seeks to take advantage of the local, public information coming online - on topics from education to health care, child care, government services and jobs - and make it easily accessible to the public. Contestants will be asked to turn that information into content, apps and services that expand people's choices on critical issues. These apps could, for example, give people valuable information about their communities in an easily digestible graphic on their mobile devices; help seniors, immigrants, and others use tools such as Skype to communicate; allow consumers to choose a health care provider; or deliver contract and seasonal job post alerts in English and Spanish via text message.

Knight Foundation is offering $100,000 dollars in prizes, with additional prizes awarded to the best apps that reach and engage traditionally underserved communities-people with disabilities, seniors, and those whose first language is not English.

April 17, 2011

Housing Update: New Section 811 Housing Program Should Lead to More Housing for Low Income People with Disabilities

By Jenifer Simpson, Government Affairs, AAPD

On April 14, 2011, AAPD attended a briefing by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the status of the new Section 811 housing program for very low income people with disabilities. This new program is authorized under the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2010, another piece of legislation enacted in 2010. This new law -- that AAPD supported along with many other advocates -- should facilitate more independent living in the community for people with disabilities. The new program, referred to as a “Project Rental Assistance” program modernizes and updates the existing “Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program (Section 811)” that began in 1990. The discussion was led by Carol Galante, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing at HUD.

Background: Over the past 20 years, HUD has supported about 30,000 “housing units” for households whose income is 15% below poverty level. These households served include people with developmental disabilities, people with physical disabilities, people with HIV/AIDS, and people with mental illness. The Section 811 program provides funds in the form of capital advances to non-profit organizations to develop rental housing with support services for people with disabilities. The program also provides rent subsidies to tenants. Projects funded have included group homes, independent living complexes and sponsored condominiums or cooperative units.

Section 811 Modernization:While maintaining support for group homes and independent living complexes, the new program targets multi-family housing, i.e., apartment buildings, to encourage non-profit sponsors to set-aside up to 25% of the units for people with disabilities. The new program also creates a new Project Rental Assistance program where HUD will give funds to state housing agencies that can demonstrate strong collaboration with state health and human services agencies to deliver the services and supports needed by people with disabilities. Households served must include one person with a disability and be extremely low income (30% of area median income level or less.) Projects funded must operate for 15 year terms and cannot use Section 811 funds for development costs. At the briefing AAPD attended it became apparent that a key component of this new rental assistance program will be how well and in what ways the housing agency works with the Medicaid services agency in the state to deliver the support services. For instance, whether the two agencies would sign Memorandums of Agreement and how well detailed they would be for purposes of implementation.

Policy Concerns: Attending the HUD briefing were representatives from non-profit housing entities, from state housing finance entities and federal staff from HUD, OMB, HHS, ASPE and CMS. Discussion covered topics such as landlord-tenant relationships, “disruption when someone doesn’t take their medication,” “it’s not the owner’s job to market to tenants,” “reasonable accommodations to disability,” “need for flexibility,” state HCBS and other Medicaid waivers, and how the “new program might support the Olmstead Act.” Advocates from Access Living (Chicago, IL), AAPD and Lutheran Services of America raised topics such as non-discrimination in housing and the need for assurances from the state Medicaid services agency to deliver supportive services to make the program work.

During the coming year, HUD expects to release a proposed rule – likely in September -- about these and other concerns. HUD expects to finalize the rules for the program before the end of 2011 or early 2012. The new Frank Melville Section 811 program is expected to start and be funded in 2012.

Action step:

To stay on top of this program, such as for the purpose of commenting into proposed rules, and to ensure your state housing and federal agencies know about the new program next year, contact Ben Metcalf at of the HUD Office of Multifamily Housing programs at Benjamin.t.metcalf@hud.gov Ask to be put on mailing list for any Notices about the program, about the rules development and any HUD Field Informational Hearings they will hold on this new Section 811 program.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that Charles Schwab Bank has agreed to pay $30,000 settling allegations that the bank refused to accept a loan application from the adult son of a Metairie, Louisiana woman with disabilities. The son, who was acting with his mother's power of attorney, tried to apply for a loan on his mother's behalf, but was told that the bank did not accept powers of attorney for "incapacitated borrowers."

"Lenders must ensure that their policies take into account the needs of all borrowers and do not discriminate against persons with disabilities," said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. "HUD will continue to work with lenders to make sure that their policies and practices make lending opportunities available to everyone."

The settlement follows a HUD investigation of a complaint against the San Francisco-based bank from a woman with disabilities who said the bank rebuffed her son's attempt to submit a loan application over the phone on her behalf. The son alleged the bank advised him that it does not accept a power of attorney for "incapacitated borrowers" during the application process and refused to accept the loan information the son offered, despite the fact he had power of attorney for his mother. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to have policies that discriminate or have a discriminatory effect against persons with disabilities.

According to the voluntary agreement in this case, Charles Schwab Bank agrees to: pay the borrower $25,000, $10,000 of which will go to St. Francis Xavier Church, as a charitable donation on behalf of the borrower; $5,000 to the borrower's son; permit persons with disabilities, where necessary, to use a power-of-attorney, at no additional cost; update the mortgage education section of its website to include questions and answers regarding powers-of-attorneys; and provide fair lending/fair housing training for its employees.

Lays Out Goals to Improve Employment for Americans with Disabilities, Expand Disability Workforce to 6 Million

This morning, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) gave the keynote address at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Corporate Disability Employment Summit. A longtime champion for people with disabilities, Harkin sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, and as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, he recently held a hearing to identify barriers to employment for people with intellectual disabilities and strategies that have successfully improved employment opportunities. Today, he sounded the alarm on a disturbing trend: more than two thirds of Americans with disabilities are without a job, and adults with disabilities are leaving the labor force during this recession at more than 10 times the rate of adults without disabilities. Harkin called on the CEOs and business owners in the audience to join him in his goal of increasing the number of disabled Americans in the workforce from 4.9 million today to 6 million in 2015.

“As we enter into the third decade of implementation of the ADA, my central priority is improving employment opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities. The ADA and the special education laws have combined to produce the best-educated population of people with disabilities in U.S. history. And yet, while the majority of them would like to be working, the shocking fact is that more than two thirds of Americans with disabilities are without a job. In fact, now that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting regularly on the employment situation for people with disabilities, we have strong evidence that it has gotten disproportionately worse for workers with disabilities in the last two years. According to BLS data, between March of 2009 and March of this year, the size of the disability workforce shrunk by 395,000 workers to about 4.9 million workers,” Harkin said in his remarks.

“When this drop is compared with broader labor force trends, you can see that more than one in three American adults who have left the labor force in the last two years have been people with disabilities. That means that, during this recession, adults with disabilities have been leaving the labor force at a rate more than 10 times the rate of adults without disabilities. This disturbing trend line has not received much attention from policymakers or the public. We need to recognize that it has a huge budgetary and social cost. For example, it has been accompanied by increases in applications for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, which have grown from an average of 200,000 new applications per month at the beginning of 2008 to an average of close to 250,000 per month by the end of 2010.

“If we work together, I believe we can set a realistic goal of increasing the number of adults with disabilities participating in the labor force from 4.9 million, today, to 6 million by 2015. Expanding the disability workforce by more than one million workers in four years is achievable if we get serious about making it happen.…I want your ideas and I am asking for your collaboration so that our policies are producing real results on the ground--real results that become jobs for people with disabilities and a strong, talented and loyal workforce for businesses. If there are federal policies that are getting in the way of your efforts, I want to hear about those too so we can do something about them. Making a real impact on disability employment numbers is one of my top priorities and will remain so as long as I am in the Senate.”

April 16, 2011

By Guest Bloggers Alexis Henry, ScD, Director, Work Without Limits and Michelle Nowers, BA, Project Manager for Communications, Work Without Limits

“Massachusetts works best when everybody works.” Thousands of Massachusetts residents will be seeing this message throughout the month of April, as part of a public awareness campaign that was launched on April 1st...

Contact your Representative and Senators during the Congressional Recess (Monday April 18- Friday April 29) to advocate against current House proposals to slash funding for Medicaid. Talking Points, Action Steps and Contact Information for Senators and Representatives is below.

Background:The recent budget proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives would seriously undermine the Medicaid program. Medicaid provides critical health coverage to 8 million Americans with disabilities who rely upon Medicaid for long term services and support, including prescription drug coverage, durable medical equipment, and facilities and services which permit them to live and work in the community, avoiding costly institutional care.

This proposal would reduce Medicaid funding for the next ten years by a total of $772 billion below the level of a status quo program. This is a reduction of about 35%. In addition, the proposal would make the reduced funding a cap on the program (the so-called block grant). By contrast, the existing program does not have a cap and is an entitlement program in which federal funding will cover a share (averaging 57%) of the expenses of a state’s approved Medicaid program. If enacted, the States would have the burden of limiting their programs to deal with the reduced federal support. The reductions made by the state could take the form of curtailing covered services, capping enrollment, and imposing high premiums and co-payments for beneficiaries.

Policy Considerations: The Congressional process for this proposal is likely to be drawn out. At this time there is no definite scenario for how and when Congress will consider proposals to cut Medicaid. There are a number of possibilities.

Medicaid cuts are now in issue in the Congressional Budget resolution that, if passed, would establish dollar limits for Medicaid funding. If limits are set, the details, such as converting the program from an entitlement program to a program of capped blocked grants, would be dealt with in subsequent legislation. At this time, there is a good possibility that the House and Senate will not be able to agree on a budget resolution, as has happened in the past. Even if no budget resolution is adopted Congress is still able to go forward with legislation to fund the government.

The next opportunity to impose general spending caps is likely to be when legislation is considered to raise the debt ceiling on the amount of the debt the federal government can issue. The federal government’s debt is expected to reach the current ceiling by May 16. The Administration has stated that if the ceiling is not raised by July 18, the government will be unable to make payments on existing debt. This would have catastrophic effects on interest rates in domestic and international markets. Unlike the budget resolution, the debt ceiling bill is “must pass” legislation.

Outlook: There is speculation that conservatives will refuse to support legislation to raise the debt ceiling unless accompanied by legislation requiring limits on federal spending. Possible limits on spending could take many forms, but most likely they will be general and the battle will continue over follow-up legislation to develop detailed proposals for individual programs such as Medicaid. On another track, President Obama has announced a plan for bi-partisan negotiations between the Administration and the Congress, with the goal of reaching an agreement on the overall budget by June.

The battle over cuts in Medicaid is likely to be prolonged, and involve a series of critical decisions and votes. It is important that the opponents of Medicaid cut proposals express opposition early and often. Even if all details of Medicaid are not an issue in proposals for general spending cuts, the structure of these general spending cut proposals will affect the likelihood that similar proposals will ultimately be adopted. At all times, Members of Congress need to be aware of the serious consequences to people with disabilities of drastic cuts in Medicaid.

The Congressional recess beginning the week of Monday April 18 to Friday April 29th is a good time for advocates to educate their Congressman and Senators who will be in their home districts and states during the recess.

Suggested Talking Points:

Medicaid is critical for the health care of 8 million people with disabilities.

Medicaid pays for wheelchairs and prosthetic devices for people with disabilities such as spinal chord injury, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Medicaid pays for prescription drugs for persons with mental illnesses and epilepsy and other medical conditions.

Medicaid pays for programs to enable people with intellectual disabilities to live and work in the community.

Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening Diagnosis & Treatment program helps identify disabilities early for children with disabilities and gets them the care they need.

The proposal would undermine these important benefits by reducing funding for Medicaid for the next 10 years by $772 billion, compared to continuation of the status quo.

The proposal does not establish specific reductions in Medicaid to enable the program to operate under reduced funding. States will have to make changes to afford to continue Medicaid with significantly less federal support and this proposal leaves it to the States to decide how to cut back on their programs. This could impact many of the current waivers that support community-based living for people with disabilities. Changes must be carefully considered to be certain they will not have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to enhance their ability to live and work in the community.

On Friday, April 8, 2011, AAPD participated in a briefing held by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the administrative agency for these health care financing mechanisms for people with disabilities. A key speaker was Center for Medicare Management Director Jonathan Blum, who discussed proposed new rules to help doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers offer better coordinated care for Medicare patients through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The conference call was set up because CMS is soliciting comments on proposed rules for ACOs that were issued March 31, 2011. Formation of ACOs are one way the new health care reform law will be implemented. Here is a summary of what AAPD learned about the ACOs and how they may affect some people with disabilities:

About ACOs: The ACO must take responsibility for at least 5,000 (Medicare) beneficiaries for a period of three years, as suggested in the law, and is provider based. Note that patient and provider participation in an ACO is purely voluntary; AAPD is not clear if beneficiaries will be contacted first either by CMS or the ACO but hopes to learn about this as implementation gets underway. Significantly, for people with disabilities, the new health care law requires each ACO to include health care providers, suppliers, and Medicare beneficiaries – which includes people with disabilities -- on its governing board.

Savings: These ACO entities are intended to create cost savings through lowering growth rates in Medicare expenditures through coordination of service. This is through facilitating incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across different care settings such as doctor’s offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. CMS’s Medicare Shared Savings Program (SSP) will reward ACOs that lower growth in health care costs while meeting performance standards on quality of care and by putting patients first. CMS believes that via its proposed regulations for ACOs, Medicare could potentially save as much as $960 million over three years.

How it Works: Under the proposed rule, Medicare would continue to pay individual health care providers and suppliers for specific items and services as it currently does under the Original Medicare payment systems. CMS would now also develop a benchmark for each ACO against which ACO performance is measured to assess whether it qualifies to receive shared savings, or to be held accountable for losses. CMS is also proposing to establish a minimum sharing rate that would account for normal variations in health care spending, so that the ACO would be entitled to shared savings only when savings exceeded the minimum sharing rate. The amount of shared savings depends on whether on an ACO meets or exceeds quality performance standards. The proposed rule would provide for additional shared savings for ACOs that include beneficiaries who receive services from a Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic during the performance year.

Care Quality: The rule proposes to measure quality of care in five domains that affect patient care: these are patient/caregiver experience of care; care coordination; patient safety; preventive health; and at-risk population/frail elderly health. The ACO must have a beneficiary care survey in place, must have patients in its governing body and must address diversity in its governance board and in delivery of care.

To send in comments, go to CMS website. The File code is CMS-1345-P-2 which must appear in your comments. You can comment electronically on these regulations at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the "Submit a comment" instructions. Comments are due at the end of May.

If you are a Medicare beneficiary, think about how you might want to become involved with an Accredited Care Organization (ACO) if they are formed in your local area. Your role on the governance board could be critical to ensuring quality service delivery for people with disabilities.

If you have consumer-based comments or concerns about ACOs, please send them to AAPD at policy@aapd.com with “ACO” in the subject matter line, so we can raise them with CMS, as appropriate.

April 14, 2011

...The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)... applauds President Obama for making quality of life issues for people with disabilities an integral part of his fiscal policy remarks. The President’s commitment to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which are lifelines for millions of Americans with disabilities, is very welcomed news. This commitment helps guarantee that the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act – equal opportunity, full participation, independence and economic self-sufficiency -- can be fully realized.

“AAPD salutes President Obama for making the debate over budgets and deficits more than just about numbers, but focuses on the kind of future we want for our country,” said Tony Coelho, Chair, AAPD Board of Directors. Coelho added, “Thank you, Mr. President, for making sure that Americans with disabilities’ security, dignity and potential for opportunities are part of your vision for the future.”

Take Action: Thank the President for including us in the process. Write the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact Call at 202-456-1111 (TTY 202-456-6213).

From the White House (4.13.11):

Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy

George Washington University - Washington, D.C.

... This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page; it’s about more than just cutting and spending. It’s about the kind of future that we want. It’s about the kind of country that we believe in...We believe, in the words of our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves...

...Part of this American belief that we’re all connected also expresses itself in a conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security and dignity. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff may strike any one of us. “There but for the grace of God go I,” we say to ourselves. And so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, those with disabilities. We’re a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further. We would not be a great country without those commitments...

...Now, to their credit, one vision [for addressing the debt] has been presented and championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives and embraced by several of their party’s presidential candidates. It’s a plan that aims to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, and one that addresses the challenge of Medicare and Medicaid in the years after that.. I believe it paints a vision of our future that is deeply pessimistic...

...It’s a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors. It says that 10 years from now, if you’re a 65-year-old who’s eligible for Medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6,400 more than you would today. It says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn’t worth enough to buy the insurance that’s available in the open marketplace, well, tough luck -– you’re on your own. Put simply, it ends Medicare as we know it.

It’s a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. Who are these 50 million Americans? Many are somebody’s grandparents -- may be one of yours -- who wouldn’t be able to afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some of these kids with disabilities are -- the disabilities are so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves...

To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I’m President, we won’t.

So today, I’m proposing a more balanced approach to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 12 years...Our approach lowers the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself. Already, the reforms we passed in the health care law will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion. My approach would build on these reforms. We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments...

let me be absolutely clear: I will preserve these health care programs as a promise we make to each other in this society. I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.

That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security. While Social Security is not the cause of our deficit, it faces real long-term challenges in a country that’s growing older. As I said in the State of the Union, both parties should work together now to strengthen Social Security for future generations. But we have to do it without putting at risk current retirees, or the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market. And it can be done...

Medicaid - The proposed plan shifts the cost of Medicaid to low-income consumers, including people with disabilities, and cuts the program by a third over the next 10 years. The proposed plan converts Medicaid to a block grant which will cap funding regardless of health care cost inflation over time.

Medicare - The proposed plan eliminates the current Medicare structure and transforms the program into a voucher system. It shifts the cost of services to the beneficiaries, almost doubling amount that individuals pay out of pocket for their ongoing health care.

Progress Made in Health Reform - The proposed plan repeals and defunds the Affordable Care Act (ACA) including programs that are vital for people with disabilities. For example, the CLASS Program and and the Community First Choice Option are two ACA provisions targeted at expanding home and community based options for people with disabilities.

Frankie Mastrangelo is the moderator for both the Justice For All (JFA) national email listerv as well as for the JFActivist blog. She is also an organizer for the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, D.C.